PLASMA-LEVELS OF ARGININE-VASOPRESSIN ELEVATED IN PATIENTS WITH MAJORDEPRESSION

Mentally healthy subjects show increased plasma concentrations of the neuropeptides, arginine vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT), under con ditions of stress, but data are lacking about plasma concentrations of AVP and OT in patients with major depression. We thus assessed plasma concentrations of AVP and OT in patients with major depression (n = 5 2) and healthy controls (n = 37). Mean plasma AVP concentrations were higher in the group of depressed patients than in controls. A subgroup of 16 patients showed very high levels of plasma AVP, but no other fe ature differentiating this subgroup from the other patients was found. In-patients showed higher plasma AVP levels than out-patients, and me lancholic patients had higher plasma AVP levels than did nonmelancholi c patients. Plasma AVP levels were slightly related to psychomotor ret ardation and significantly inversely to neuroticism. Patients' plasma OT concentrations had a wider range than in controls. AVP and AVP-medi ated functions may be a factor in the clinical picture of depression, possibly by influencing the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adr enal axis. (C) 1997 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Publi shed by Elsevier Science Inc.